So this might be burned ground (is this a saying?) but the fantasy or medieval equivalent to sirens maybe are something like the horn sounds in GoT. I was so afraid of the horn being blown three times from the start and knew it was coming.. think there’s something about “anticipation” that creates and ultimately scary experience. I feel like this is similar with sirens, or even when deceased people’s names were broadcasted after a disaster.
In Christianity you get that with the trumpets blasting when the apocalypse comes… definitely the sense of anticipation is what makes many sounds so scary
The sound of a dentist drill is one of the most terrifying sounds to me, but sirens are definitely up there. Eee, I'm feeling all spooked out now - I guess your job is done here, Rebekah!
I'm reading this while procrastinating at work so I will have to go back and listen to the recordings later--I just wanted to add to the disaster siren discussion that in addition to the calamaties they represent, there's something about their institutional disembodiment that make them even more dystopian-feeling, like they represent not only disasters coming from forces exponentially bigger than you, but also this faceless state that's hovering around watching the disaster happen to you, and is potentially one of those same forces...
Plus, I don't think we really have them in the US, except in tornado states? Or if we do, they aren't tested regularly so I associate them with WWII films. Now that I hear them being tested every Wednesday at noon somewhere in Grenoble I feel eerily transported to another time, and also wonder what good they do if they don't come with any training on what to do when you hear it. (I think maybe the US relies on emergency alerts on phones, which at least involves words.)
I used to be so scared of tornados after watching The Wizard of Oz, we don’t really have any weather that dangerous in the UK. You’re absolutely right about the institutional disembodiment, I think Ito plays on that in his story because it’s so unclear who exactly set up the siren and why… I hope work is going well,Anne!
Sirens terrify me. My grandma would tense up whenever she heard one on TV (a problem as my grandad was a big fan of "Dad's Army"). She lived in London during the war, so goodness knows what the heck went through her mind, or through her body, as it seemed such a visceral response, each time she heard one. Her fear transferred to me.
We had a siren in our village in case the nuclear power station (about 10 miles away) had a problem. I never heard it go off, but it unnerved me every time I walked past it. And then, my friend (living in a nearby village) heard their siren, as there was a false alarm at the plant. It turns my insides to water, just thinking about how terrifying that must've been. A friend pointed me towards an online recording of Sellafield's alarm - it's apocalyptic!
Aside from sirens: when I started working from home during the first lockdown, I found the "new email" notification sound in Outlook really unnerving (it was a pretty unnerving time anyway, tbh!), and I eventually realised it's because it sounds like the rippling sound in The X Files' theme tune. And apparently *that* was based on Johnny Marr's incredible guitar on The Smiths' track "How Soon Is Now?"
And another I've just thought of - that shrieky noise the alarms make at level crossings. They're terrifying!
(I've taken my hearing aids out for the night, though, so I'll have to listen to the recordings in your post tomorrow! Speaking of which, those bloops and beeps in the hearing test are creepy. I had a test once in a really old isolation booth, just stuck there with old wires and headsets and the bloops.... Brrrrrrrrrrr.... Then my tinnitus parrots the noise for several hours afterwards, and having a distant bloop playing in my head is simultaneously creepy *and* annoying!)
I might have to do a part 3 for this series, these are all so good! The image of the silent siren that you had to walk past is so powerfully ominous - and I have family who work near Sellafield so I will have to go and check out what that sounds like! And I don’t think I’ve got my sound notifications turned on for outlook but I’ll have to check that out too.
When I was a kid my friend had a furby which started making this high pitched scream and wouldn’t stop. We took the batteries out… and it kept screaming but in a higher pitch! It didn’t help that we already believed her hundred year old converted farm house was haunted! Perhaps the furby was a warning of some kind haha
The Sellafield siren made me want to run out the room! But that must mean it's pretty effective!
I think Microsoft changed the Outlook sound. Maybe too many people complained that it was freaking them out.
And what the heck was going on with the Furby?!
At one point, my partner and I were being haunted by a deep, creepy noise which seemed to emanate from our neighbour's front garden, but only when it rained. Eventually we found out it was a slowly dying battery on a potty that played a tune every time the child was "successful".
Another excellent post! Air raid sirens will never NOT be terrifying to me, and I don't think I'll be able to forget the sound of that laser printer any time soon.
Also, I now have to read all of your Kate Bush articles when I get the chance, as I absolutely love Kate and all of her brilliant weirdness. 🙂
As for sounds that frighten me and (seemingly) no one else, I've been terrified of Kreepy Krauly pool cleaners since I was a child. They ... tick. Under water, the ticking sounds a lot like a rapid heartbeat. It sounds like something alive. I always imagined them sneaking up on me, sucking up my hair, and drowning me. I remember getting teased mercilessly as a kid because I refused to jump in the pool at pool parties whenever a Kreepy Krauly was in operation. I STILL refuse to share the pool with a Kreepy Krauly to this day, and I'm almost 40, haha.
Someone on the YouTube video for the air raid siren commented that it's the last sound many people ever heard which makes it all the more sorrowful. I do like how they use the All Clear at the end of Dad's Army!
Let me know what you think of the KB articles, I absolutely loved researching/writing them. I have never seen one of those pool cleaners - how sinister to have something crawling around on the bottom of a pool! Definitely nightmare-inducing.
As an American, let me assure you our government has always been incredibly eager to throw taxpayer dollars at dubious martial experiments 😭
At work now but I'm going to listen to the radio play when I get home tonight. Lambs?? British countryside?? What could POSSIBLY go wrong??? 💀
Enjoy it, Kit! The audio quality is very…well shit because it was done in a weekend by students. But still fun!
I adore Ito! I love watching any videos of him doing ANYTHING. He is so hilarious but his work is soooo wonderfully disturbing.
Me too, he’s so good at effortlessly capturing the uncanny.
So this might be burned ground (is this a saying?) but the fantasy or medieval equivalent to sirens maybe are something like the horn sounds in GoT. I was so afraid of the horn being blown three times from the start and knew it was coming.. think there’s something about “anticipation” that creates and ultimately scary experience. I feel like this is similar with sirens, or even when deceased people’s names were broadcasted after a disaster.
In Christianity you get that with the trumpets blasting when the apocalypse comes… definitely the sense of anticipation is what makes many sounds so scary
The sound of a dentist drill is one of the most terrifying sounds to me, but sirens are definitely up there. Eee, I'm feeling all spooked out now - I guess your job is done here, Rebekah!
Mua haha…(thanks Sheila)
I'm reading this while procrastinating at work so I will have to go back and listen to the recordings later--I just wanted to add to the disaster siren discussion that in addition to the calamaties they represent, there's something about their institutional disembodiment that make them even more dystopian-feeling, like they represent not only disasters coming from forces exponentially bigger than you, but also this faceless state that's hovering around watching the disaster happen to you, and is potentially one of those same forces...
Plus, I don't think we really have them in the US, except in tornado states? Or if we do, they aren't tested regularly so I associate them with WWII films. Now that I hear them being tested every Wednesday at noon somewhere in Grenoble I feel eerily transported to another time, and also wonder what good they do if they don't come with any training on what to do when you hear it. (I think maybe the US relies on emergency alerts on phones, which at least involves words.)
I used to be so scared of tornados after watching The Wizard of Oz, we don’t really have any weather that dangerous in the UK. You’re absolutely right about the institutional disembodiment, I think Ito plays on that in his story because it’s so unclear who exactly set up the siren and why… I hope work is going well,Anne!
Haha I was also terrified of tornados (even more than pool cleaner robots) even though we lived nowhere near tornado country!
And thanks :)
Pretty certain I saw that Alien trailer in the cinema. It was gut wrenching.
I bet! I need to convince my friends with surround sound tvs to let me try it.
Sirens terrify me. My grandma would tense up whenever she heard one on TV (a problem as my grandad was a big fan of "Dad's Army"). She lived in London during the war, so goodness knows what the heck went through her mind, or through her body, as it seemed such a visceral response, each time she heard one. Her fear transferred to me.
We had a siren in our village in case the nuclear power station (about 10 miles away) had a problem. I never heard it go off, but it unnerved me every time I walked past it. And then, my friend (living in a nearby village) heard their siren, as there was a false alarm at the plant. It turns my insides to water, just thinking about how terrifying that must've been. A friend pointed me towards an online recording of Sellafield's alarm - it's apocalyptic!
Aside from sirens: when I started working from home during the first lockdown, I found the "new email" notification sound in Outlook really unnerving (it was a pretty unnerving time anyway, tbh!), and I eventually realised it's because it sounds like the rippling sound in The X Files' theme tune. And apparently *that* was based on Johnny Marr's incredible guitar on The Smiths' track "How Soon Is Now?"
And another I've just thought of - that shrieky noise the alarms make at level crossings. They're terrifying!
(I've taken my hearing aids out for the night, though, so I'll have to listen to the recordings in your post tomorrow! Speaking of which, those bloops and beeps in the hearing test are creepy. I had a test once in a really old isolation booth, just stuck there with old wires and headsets and the bloops.... Brrrrrrrrrrr.... Then my tinnitus parrots the noise for several hours afterwards, and having a distant bloop playing in my head is simultaneously creepy *and* annoying!)
I might have to do a part 3 for this series, these are all so good! The image of the silent siren that you had to walk past is so powerfully ominous - and I have family who work near Sellafield so I will have to go and check out what that sounds like! And I don’t think I’ve got my sound notifications turned on for outlook but I’ll have to check that out too.
When I was a kid my friend had a furby which started making this high pitched scream and wouldn’t stop. We took the batteries out… and it kept screaming but in a higher pitch! It didn’t help that we already believed her hundred year old converted farm house was haunted! Perhaps the furby was a warning of some kind haha
That’s the BEST ghost explanation I’ve heard I love it!
The Sellafield siren made me want to run out the room! But that must mean it's pretty effective!
I think Microsoft changed the Outlook sound. Maybe too many people complained that it was freaking them out.
And what the heck was going on with the Furby?!
At one point, my partner and I were being haunted by a deep, creepy noise which seemed to emanate from our neighbour's front garden, but only when it rained. Eventually we found out it was a slowly dying battery on a potty that played a tune every time the child was "successful".
Another excellent post! Air raid sirens will never NOT be terrifying to me, and I don't think I'll be able to forget the sound of that laser printer any time soon.
Also, I now have to read all of your Kate Bush articles when I get the chance, as I absolutely love Kate and all of her brilliant weirdness. 🙂
As for sounds that frighten me and (seemingly) no one else, I've been terrified of Kreepy Krauly pool cleaners since I was a child. They ... tick. Under water, the ticking sounds a lot like a rapid heartbeat. It sounds like something alive. I always imagined them sneaking up on me, sucking up my hair, and drowning me. I remember getting teased mercilessly as a kid because I refused to jump in the pool at pool parties whenever a Kreepy Krauly was in operation. I STILL refuse to share the pool with a Kreepy Krauly to this day, and I'm almost 40, haha.
Pool cleaner robot things were one of my big childhood fears!
Thank goodness it's not just me, haha. Even the names they gave these things are scary. Kreepy Krauly. Barracuda.
Then there was the horrific sucking sound they'd make when they "surfaced" from the water along the side of the pool wall...
I didn’t even know they had such creepy names! Good thing too haha
Someone on the YouTube video for the air raid siren commented that it's the last sound many people ever heard which makes it all the more sorrowful. I do like how they use the All Clear at the end of Dad's Army!
Let me know what you think of the KB articles, I absolutely loved researching/writing them. I have never seen one of those pool cleaners - how sinister to have something crawling around on the bottom of a pool! Definitely nightmare-inducing.
Love this. I've always been a Sirenhead fan, though I think that's more about his look than his sound
He’s so nearly cute to me and yet…
Excellent. Have you heard Kipling’s poem “Boots” from the soundtrack to the upcoming “28 Years Later” from Danny Boyle?
https://youtube.com/shorts/g8plI6yv9tY?si=HgYOd3utJ777T3Hp
That’s very cool, now I’ll have to go and see the film! And the trailer contains both the Teletubbies and folk horror elements…
That laser printer though! Super-alarming 😧
I’m glad it’s not just me!